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Franco Cacialli

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Prof Franco Cacialli

As detailed within the UCL Organic Semiconductors group: http://www.cmmp.ucl.ac.uk/~fc/OS/

Biography

Biography:

PhD (Pisa -1994) New materials for solid state electronics

1994-1996 PDRA (Cambridge) Brite-Euram programme: POLYLED

1996-2004 Royal Society University Research Fellow (RS-URF)

Fellow of the Institute of Physics (2001)

2001-2003 Lecturer in Physics UCL (Physics and Astronomy)

2003-2005 Reader in Physics UCL (Physics and Astronomy)

2005 Professor of Physics UCL (Physics and Astronomy and London Centre for Nanotechnology)

Fellow of the American Physical Society 2009

Franco Cacialli is Professor of Physics in the London Centre for Nanotechnology (LCN, www.london-nano.ucl.ac.uk) and the Department of Physics and Astronomy at UCL. His research interests focus on the physics and application of organic semiconductors (OS) to Photovoltaic/light-emitting diodes, and to field-effect transistors with particular attention to the electronic properties of the electrode-semiconductors interface, an issue of fundamental importance in virtually all device applications. Research interests also include supramolecular architectures for the control and tailoring of intermolecular interactions, and thus of OS photophysics, and high-resolution nanolithography by means of the scanning near-field optical microscope (SNOM) or the scanning thermal microscope (SThM). He received his degree and PhD in Electronic Engineering from the University of Pisa, and after post-doctoral work at Cambridge has been a Royal Society University Research Fellow in the period 1996-2004, first at Cambridge until 2001, then at UCL, as a Lecturer (2001-2003), a Reader (2003-2005), and Professor of Physics (since 2005). A Fellow of the Institute of Physics (FinstP), a former member of the Advisory Board of "Materials Today" and of the Journal of Physics C: Condensed Matter, and a current member of the EPSRC Peer Review College, he (co)authored over 200 publications and 6 patents. Franco has coordinated an 11-partner Marie-Curie Research Training Network (RTN) dedicated to investigation of threaded molecular wires (THREADed Molecular wIres as supramoLecularly engineered muLtifunctional materials THREADMILL www.threadmill.eu) and currently coordinates a new European Training Network dedicated to exploitation of supramolecular materials for photonics (SupramolecularlY eNgineered arCHitectures for optoelectRonics and photONICS (SYNCHRONICS)). He also co-edited (with P Samor“ Strasbourg) the book "Functional Supramolecular Architectures" (Wiley 2010).

Franco has been elected to a Fellowship of the American Physical Society in 2009.

Franco’s research ranges from the set-up of an original chemical vapour deposition method of heavily doped, conducting polymers, to the study of polymer LEDs and the control of their luminescent properties. Recent interests include supramolecular architectures for the control of the solid-state properties of organic semiconductors, in particular threaded molecular wires (www.threadmill.eu). Another strand of activities is aimed at top-down fabrication and characterisation of organic semiconductors (OS) nanostructures (including high-resolution fluorescence / photoconductivity imaging) by means of scanning near-field optical or thermochemical microscopes.